AML Awards 1977 – 1979

YEAR

RECIPIENT

TITLE

AWARD

CITATION

1979

Cindy Lesser Larsen

“Whoever Heard of a Utah Poet?: An Overview of Poetry in the Early Church”

Criticism

The awards committee felt that Larsen’s essay “embodies the important virtues of our discipline: solid scholarship an excellent grasp of subject matter and the careful workings of a keen analytical mind.” “This critically perceptive survey of early Mormon poets makes an important contribution to Mormon literary history and is especially noteworthy as a model of undergraduate scholarship”.

1979

Edward L. Hart

To Utah

Poetry

“To Utah is a bringing together of forty years of poetic exploration. Hart’s ‘tribute and gift to those he loves becomes a tribute to his understanding of and devotion to the elements of his existence. Out of To Utah and his portrayal of the destruction caused by human frailty rises his sympathy for the pain of living and his faith in our ultimate success.’ His ‘reverence for the Word’ resounds throughout To Utah a book that ‘spans his years and illuminates ours.’”

1979

Marden J. Clark

Moods; Of Late

Poetry

The judges stated that this collection of poems “impresses as a reflective exploration of the most Mormon of topics; the relationship of family and religious experience. The energy of the poems lies in their gentle co-mingling of dark profundity and engagingly informed naivete. Through them Clark has taught us that form indeed liberates; and that sonship may bristle at times with anger and cry out in pain; yet resolve in awe and celebration.”

1979

Bela Petsco

Nothing Very Important and Other Stories

Short Fiction

“At a time when Wasatch-front Mormons find themselves an ever-smaller minority in the expanding Church the work of Bela Petsco is a sign of the future among us.” This collection-a series of linked stories featuring a central character-Mih’ly Agyar-an ethnic Hungarian from New York-is significant “not only because it is refreshing and insightful in its own right-but also because it is the first of its kind—an important modern fictional work by and about a Latter-day Saint reared outside of the Wasatch-front cultural tradition.”

1978

Steven P. Sondrup

“Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography”

Criticism

The judges awarded the prize for the essay’s contribution in “probing the relationship of autobiography and history” and “for analyzing some literary possibilities offered by the genre.”

1978

Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown

“Grandmother”

Poetry

(“Grandmother” also published in her book The Grandmother Tree; Provo: Art Publishers [1978].) In their evaluation of “Grandmother” the judges noted its “lean and austere grace” and singled it out as “witnessing one way the sources of Mormon tradition can nourish contemporary Mormon poetry.”

1978

Marden J. Clark

“God’s Plenty”

Poetry

(“God’s Plenty” also published in his compilation Moods; Of Late Provo: BYU Press [1979].) “God’s Plenty” was cited as “an example of humane and disciplined Mormon imagination searching and shaping the hard element of personal experience.”

1978

Clinton F. Larson

The Western World

Poetry

Judges called this collection “the present and doubtless temporary culmination of Clinton Larson’s poetic effort; a case of vintage Larson; with all the traits that baffle; irritate; delight; and enlarge his readers.” The award also acknowledged his “long and gigantically productive” writing career “which has made him a huge; potent paternal presence on the imaginative horizons of younger Mormon writers.”

1978

Karen Rosenbaum

“Hit the Frolicking Rippling Brooks”

Short Fiction

The committee cited “Hit the Frolicking Rippling Brooks” as “a rich; witty; and sophisticated story of contemporary Mormon life; an appreciation of the ordinary which avoids easy affirmations and easy negations alike” with “technical maturity and control.”

1978

Levi S. Peterson

“The Confessions of Augustine”

Short Fiction

Noting that “either story alone would qualify for the prize” the prize committee commented that “both stories achieve added dimensions of meaning from the submerged yet constantly present conversion patterns alluded to in the titles; the recurring tension between wilderness and the disciplines of Mormon community; and the movingly realized ambiguities of loss and gain.”

1977

Clifton Holt Jolley

“The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith: An Archetypal Study”

Criticism

Brings to bear on historical materials the insights of literature, thereby enhancing the contributions of both disciplines.

1977

Arthur Henry King

The Field Behind Holly House

Poetry

Brings to bare on Mormon experience the great sources of Western culture; and through the tradition of English meditative poetry expressing "a deeply personal and seriously theological meditation on time and eternity."

1977

Linda Sillitoe

The Old Philosopher and "Letter to a Four-Year-Old Daughter" from BYU Studies

Poetry

Clear-eyed; hard-edged perceptions of ordinary and extraordinary experience which first address us in deceptively plain style and then surprise and delight us with unobtrusive formal patterns.

1977

Donald Marshall

The Wheelbarrow and "The Reunion"-both from the collection Frost in the Orchard

Short Fiction

Was praised for his serious portrayal of contemporary life in its breadth and depth; and encouraged in his explorations of the comic mode.

1977

Douglas H. Thayer

Indian Hills and "Zarahemla"-both from the collection Under Cottonwoods and Other Stories

Short Fiction

His meticulous attention to matters of theme; structure; and background–the small towns of Utah; historical; geographic; and communal–was approved.

AML Facebook Feed

The Association for Mormon Letters will present two lifetime achievement awards at the Mormon Scholars in the Humanities Conference Banquet on March 23, held at the BYU Skyroom Restaurant, 6:30-8:30 pm. Lavina Fielding Anderson will be presented with the Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters, and Robert Kirby will be presented with the Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Award. Both authors will be attending. There will also be one panel dedicated to each awardee as part of the MSH Conference, held in the afternoon of March 23, before the award ceremony. associationmormonletters.org/blog/2018/03/lifetime-achievement-awards-lavina-fielding-anderson-an...... See MoreSee Less

Kim Östman reviews Hans H Mattsson and Christina Andersson Hanke's memoir, “Sökte sanning – fann tvivel” (Sought Truth, Found Doubt). Mattsson is a former member of the Third Quorum of the Seventy, who has been public with his transition away from belief in Mormonism. "Latter-day Saint life and faith is portrayed with great skill throughout the book, and nobody is portrayed flippantly or vindictively. Despite comments that remind the reader of the book’s ultimate message, its tone is respectful throughout, and it is abundantly clear that the authors have a place in their hearts for their former faith and their experiences within it. Mr. Mattsson appears to have arrived at a healthy vantage point from which to evaluate his life journey, which is demonstrated especially in the epilogue, written in first-person style." associationmormonletters.org/blog/reviews/current-reviews/mattsson-and-hanke-sokte-sanning-fans-t...... See MoreSee Less

Segullah interviews Susan Howe. "In my student days, I was repeatedly warned against didactic poetry, poetry whose purpose is to convince the reader of something. I still believe that to be a good warning; a didactic purpose keeps a poem from being art and reduces it to a kind of propaganda. On the other hand, the patriarchal literary establishment has, during my generation and earlier, prevented women from examining their own experience by calling women’s perspectives limited and partial, which of course they are, just as men’s perspectives are limited and partial. As a student I had to learn to read with a male perspective; now men also have to learn to read with a female perspective. I think this is altogether admirable and creates far greater opportunities for men and women to understand each other. I was also taught that if you know the end of your poem when you begin to write it, it’s already a dead poem, and I believe that’s also true. Poems are about exploring, examining, and learning where the poem wants to go, not deciding that beforehand. I hope that’s evident in my poems, particularly when I examine such subjects as Mother in Heaven." segullah.org/daily-special/interview-featured-writer-susan-elizabeth-howe/... See MoreSee Less